December's Best Reads

December was a busy month. (Though I am proud to say none of that busyness had to do with a premature ejaculation of a “Best Books I Read in 2015” list. Harrumph.) A couple of much-anticipated books also disappointed. (None by anyone I know personally, thankfully.) So it’s a short list this month.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Christopher Moore. Moore is always good for inspired lunacy. This one has to do with a disgraced pilot who lost his American pilot’s license after crash landing as a result of helping a hooker join the Mile-High Club. (Don’t ask.) He gets a job with a “missionary” who provides “medical services” to a cargo cult on a remote Pacific Island. As with most of Moore’s work, describing much of what the characters do screams out for surrounding quotation marks. Great fun.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder, Jeff Markowitz. I generally avoid cozies but I know Jeff and thought his brand of off-kilter humor might make one bearable. More than bearable, he combines intertwining characters and plot lines to make coincidence a key plot, as you come to half anticipate what’s coming next, though not quite. Judicious sprinkles of irony, puns, and well-timed authorial asides flavor a story that would hold the interest on its own. I’ll be back for more.

Okay, 2015 is over, so I can safely comment on which books I read and liked best. Not today. I already wrote a post for today. I’ll post it on Thursday or your next year’s subscription is free.